Weakness
by Animal Cracker
Summary: Vincent figures out Yuffie's weakness. But Yuffie is not all helpless, she discovers his as well. Between AC and DoC.
1. Chapter 1

"No."

"Please?"

"..."

"Why not?"

"..."

"Come on! It's not like anyone's going to laugh at your face!"

"..."

"Don't glare at me! That was a compliment!"

"Yuffie, please leave me alone."

"Fine," Yuffie huffed and jumped off the bar stool of Seventh Heaven. Currently, the ninja and the gunslinger were the only occupants. Those who wanted to get drunk came later and everyone else was still asleep.

Vincent glanced at her, the only indication that he was surprised by her acceptance with defeat. Relieved, he turned to his drink - a simple glass of water. Unfortunately, he should have known not to let his guard down until he was sure the young princess was completely gone from the room.

"Ha!" Yuffie cried out triumphantly, holding Vincent's red cloak high up in front of her.

Before Vincent could demand for his cloak, Yuffie slipped it over her head and ran out the door, the tail of his crimson cloak chasing after her like a dog. Vincent grabbed his drink and downed it quickly like a shot and prepared to hunt for the ninja.

In the dead of night, long after Seventh Heaven closed, a dark figure knelt before the door. Clicks could be heard from the person's careful tinkering of the lock. After a few seconds, the figure grinned and pocketed her lock picking equipment.

Crouched low, Yuffie entered the bar and locked the door behind her without a sound. She tip-toed cautiously, taking the most round about way to the stairs. She knew the squeaky floor boards and she'd made sure to memorize them. How else could she hope to stay undetected by the others?

Yuffie successfully reached her room without waking anyone until her first step inside.

"Ah!" Yuffie yelped as a rope tightened around her right ankle and swept her off her feet. The oversized cloak fell into a crimson puddle on the floor beneath her. She stretched her fingers to grab the red bundle, but to no avail; not even a graze of her fingertip against the smooth fabric.

At the sound of light, yet heavy foot steps behind her, Yuffie twisted around. She glared at Vincent who tied the end of the rope around the leg of her bed.

"This is dirty, Valentine," Yuffie whispered, crossing her arms.

Vincent regarded the girl hung upside down in front of him lightly. He said nothing and picked up his cloak, donning crimson once more.

"You're so smug with that smirk of yours," Yuffie glared, though wasn't as nearly as strong as she would have liked. Maybe if she could stop blushing, she'd manage to look more menacing. But how could she control the rate of her heart when he stood so close. So close she could reach out only a little and touch him.

"I was not aware I was smirking," Vincent replied.

Yuffie swore his smirk only grew bigger.

"You know what?" Yuffie began and made an effort to jab him in the chest, but because she was upside down, her judgement of depth was off. Her finger ended up against his neck.

Vincent's lips twitched into what Yuffie swore was a smile and jerked back nearly stumbling onto her bed.

Yuffie gasped, her hands flew to her mouth, "Are you...Are you ticklish?"

"No," Vincent glared at her and adjusted his mantle.

"You are!" Yuffie cried out triumphantly, then remembered what time it was and continued whispering, "Yes you are! You so are! I knew everyone had a tickle spot! I never thought yours would be the neck, though I'm glad it wasn't what I suspected. I mean, I really did not want to stick my hands-"

Yuffie quickly snapped her mouth shut as Vincent pulled out a dagger from the black pockets around her hips.

"I-I won't tell anyone I promise! Just calm down, Vince!" Yuffie stuttered. Vincent wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, the cold metal of his gauntlet raising goose bumps on her shoulder and back. With his other hand, he reached up to her ankle and paused.

"You think I could ever hurt you?"

"Um..."

Vincent cut the rope and caught her legs at the knee, tossing the dagger onto her unmade bed, but kept a firm hold of her shoulders and legs when she attempted to squirm her way to freedom.

"Come on, Vince," Yuffie said, keeping her eyes on her lap, "You got your cloak."

"And my materia?"

Yuffie glanced up at him and quickly looked away. His shadowy crimson gaze warmed her cheeks and stomach. The ninja fidgeted and gulped, "What are you talking about?"

Vincent sighed.

Yuffie involuntarily shuddered at the feel of his warm breath across her cheek and neck. She fidgeted again, hoping to cover up her slip. Thankfully, only a sliver of moonlight slipped between her curtains and that did very little for the sight. Although, she wouldn't be surprised if her cheeks glowed from how hot they were. It felt like someone pressed two light bulbs against her cheeks, not to mention the over worked heater down in the pit of her stomach.

Vincent tilted his head curiously. The girl in his arms fidgeted often, but not from lying. She never gave off any obvious signs when she lied. Only those who knew her best could recognize when ever she ventured from truth. The pulse he detected from the soft flesh behind her knees raced abnormally fast. Vincent wondered why.

"The sooner I retrieve what's mine, the sooner I release you."

Vincent frowned at the ninja's silence and obvious effort to ignore him. He drew her closer to him and noted his shocking discovery. Not only had her pulse increased, he could now see the color on her cheeks.

Now, Vincent Valentine never thought of himself as exceptionally attractive and never tried to woo a woman to achieve his goal. But right now long past midnight, he was tired and cared little for the integrity of his tactics.

And Vincent was truly curious.


	2. Chapter 2

"Vincent," Yuffie warned weakly, "If you don't get your face out of my face, I'm going to bite you!"

"Yuffie," Vincent whispered, his lips barely parting to say her name. He leaned in closer and closer, not entirely sure what he was doing or what he planned to do. Yuffie melted in his hold, her eyes unable to look away from his parted lips. She never felt so humiliated. She turned to jello in his arms, in his crimson gaze, at the sound of her name on his smooth, deep voice.

"I'm serious, Vincent!"

Despite Yuffie's threats, Vincent did not falter. He simply continued his descent upon the young woman. However, at an inch gap, Yuffie ducked her head and bit his neck. The feel of her lips pressed as smooth as petals against his neck, the soft bite of her teeth grazing his skin, caused him to shiver and an unbounded growl, concocted some where deep below, from a place within him he'd long forgotten, rolled through his lips.

"Hihnshen?" Yuffie inquired curiously, her tongue brushing against the skin of his neck briefly. She refused to let him go since he insisted on holding her captive, but she was surprised at how fast Vincent dropped her and stormed out of her room. And how he managed to quietly shut the door ever so politely amidst his fierce exit.

Yuffie sat on the floor, staring wide eyed at her door. Had she bit him too hard? Was he angry at her? Yuffie could only feel lucky he hadn't gone Chaos on her.

x

In the morning, Vincent found it curious his stolen materia was lined up along the foot of his door. His actions last night, he felt, spelled defeat and yet he found success in the morning. 'Odd,' He thought, rolling one of the orbs between his fingers.

x

"Did you sleep well?"

Yuffie nearly dropped her small plate of toast and glass of juice. She stumbled on a few of her steps before she caught herself and whipped around to gape at her friend, "Yes! Why?" Quickly, she marched over to the last seat on one end of the bar and settled her food there. She couldn't eat peacefully though with all the worried thoughts of Tifa knowing what happened. If she did, Yuffie had just given her a months worth of material to embarrass her.

Tifa shot the ninja a confused look at Yuffie's odd behavior, "Nothing, I just heard a lot of action in your room last night."

"_Yuffie_!" Tifa yelped, jumping back from the spray of water shot out of Yuffie's mouth across the bar. "What's wrong with you?"

Despite having just expelled a considerable amount of water, Yuffie's mouth grew dry at the thought of 'a lot of action'. And the barrage of flashbacks from last night's event flustered her even more.

"What exactly happened last night?" Tifa interrogated, coming closer, though careful not to touch the water. She'd clean it up later knowing the culprit wouldn't do so herself. Telling from Yuffie's mortified red expression, she'd missed out on something good. But it was difficult getting information out of the girl when she was reliving something from the past. Probably from last night.

The sound of heavy footsteps landing at the base of the stairs snapped both females out of their current focus.

"Ah, Vincent!" Tifa greeted him with a warm smile, "Would you like something to eat?"

"No. Water is fine."

"Ok, here you go," Tifa placed the requested drink in front of Vincent and stayed there. She looked over at Yuffie seated all the way on the other end, expecting the short haired girl to move closer. But she didn't move, if anything, she scooted further away onto the very edge of the seat.

Now Tifa had become suspicious of the two of them. Silent-Vincent was nothing out of the ordinary, but Silent-Yuffie was rare. Silent-Yuffie meant something was up.

"Yuffie~!" Tifa called to her, "Why don't you come over here and sit next to Vincent!"

"No way!" Was the ninja's immediate response. She huddled her food closer to her as if Vincent would snatch it away any minute and shot him pouted glares.

Vincent calmly sipped on his water.

"I'm leaving!" Yuffie yelled, suddenly stuffing the remaining piece of her toast into her mouth. Before she could get away, Tifa stopped her.

"Wait! Reeve has a mission for you!"

"Fine! I'll drop by!"

"Go with Vincent, Reeve wants to see him too!"

Yuffie nearly ran into the door. She had a really bad feeling about this.


	3. Chapter 3

"Stop it, Yuffie."

"Bu-but! Vincent, I really nee-"

"_Yuffie_," Vincent's strained voice interrupted. The ninja jumped when she felt a hand hold firmly against her hip. She looked up at him to see his face, but it was much too dark to see clearly. She did notice however, that his figure hunched slightly over her as if he were injured. The rumble of his voice carried through the darkness faintly. "You're uncomfortable, I understand. I am uncomfortable as well. We will leave this place, but we must wait until it is safe."

"Ugh!" Yuffie cried in frustration. It had been hours since they snuck into some secret hide out Reeve sent them to investigate. They hadn't gone very far into the cave when two armed people appeared forcing them into a different path to avoid being seen. Which turned out to be a hole in the cave, and not a very spacious one at that. Currently, she and the gunman were sandwiched together by the walls of the cave. At first, she didn't mind the close proximity even if her heart felt like it'd be bruised later the way it thumped against her chest. She never let him think she enjoyed it for a second though, by the way she complained about how he smelled like a bag of grandmas.

The armed strangers stayed in the dim light of the torch. As the minutes passed by and the men remained standing there, she figured it was their post. Vincent decided it would be best to wait and see if the men would start talking about information that they could report back to Reeve. But the two were so silent, Yuffie wondered if they had gone to sleep.

More and more time passed by, and Yuffie began to feel the need to use the bathroom. She tried to distract herself, but when literally nothing was happening, time went by slower. She could only think about Vincent pressed against her for so long and what would happen if she brought her fingers to his neck till her loaded bladder out grew her fascination.

And so she began to fidget, subtly at first, but then it transformed into an outright squirm. That's when Vincent found he could no longer concentrate on anything but her and asked her to stop. He hadn't meant for his hand to wander to her hip, but at least she'd grown still. A larger problem arose however: he was having a hard time removing his hand which seemed to be glued to her curve.

"Who cares about that! I'm about to pee on your leg!" She yelled suddenly, pulling away from him and their hiding spot, catching the attention of the guards. She was armed with her giant shuriken and he was ready for battle as well just as they began to shoot at her. Yuffie dodged and used her shuriken to deflect a few bullets coming her way while Vincent dispatched their enemies with two accurate shots.

"Where are you going?" Vincent asked as he lowered his gun, seeing his companion hopping away.

"Just let me in this dark corner, kay?" Yuffie said replied as she disappeared inside the small hole they had occupied seconds ago. He heard her grumble, "And we can go and explore this stupid cave."

Vincent followed after her, stopping at the entrance to find her crouching on the ground, with her shorts still on, fortunately. "They know we are here. It is not safe to continue."

"Whatever!" Yuffie exclaimed, batting him away with a hand. She could feel her embarrassment rising from just staring up at him from her position. Was he just going to watch her? He really needed to realize when a girl needed her space. "Just let me-"

Sounds of stirring echoed through the cave, cutting her off. They remained silent, simply listening to the various sounds within the cave. After a second, he turned his attention back to her and said quickly, "There's no time for that, we have to go."

"I'm about to pee my pants here!" She whispered at him furiously. She meant it too. She wasn't sure how long she could hold it in as they continued to argue. And great Da Chao, the sound of water dripping from the stalactites did not help at all.

The intensity of her glare and whispered tones told him, perhaps she was about to do just that. She stared up at him, fidgeting on spot as he seemed to be stunned into an uncomfortable silence. She thought smugly that he would give in and back off, and that she had won this battle. She just wished he would hurry up and relent.

After a considerable amount of time he stood silently over her, he finally stated with an unreadable expression, "You'll be caught with your pants down."

The ninja burst out laughing, clutching her stomach as she guffawed, "Vin-Vince! Did you just, did you just-!" Her laughter died as quickly as her smile as if something had just dawned on her. Slowly, she brought her large grey eyes up to the silent gunman with a mixture of shock and horror which, after a second, transformed into a menacing glare of fury. And that's when she hit him.


	4. Chapter 4

**( A/N: Tifa and Cloud fluff. Kind of... And thanks for the reviews! )**

* * *

As the last customer of the night stepped through the door, Tifa invited them back to the seventh heaven and waved goodbye. The day had been pleasant, she thought, smiling to herself as she picked up the remnants of glass on the counter. Not a thing was shattered, no fights broke out and aside from the merriment of drunks, it had all been relatively quiet and peaceful. Due to the fact Yuffie was gone away on a mission. The ninja was a catalyst for most of the commotion in the bar: from invoking a sort of tournament of skill and strength, to gambling and cheating, which in turn was a sort of tournament of skill or strength depending on if she was caught or not.

Most of all, she looked forward to Cloud's return home today from his long delivery trips.

Tifa had cleaned the glasses and was in the middle of putting them away when she heard the motor of Fenrir pull up. Quickly, she placed the last cup into the cupboard and walked around the counter just in time to meet the blonde ex-soldier coming through the door with a hug.

He enveloped her in his arms instantly and seemed to breathe her in, placing a hand in her hair and on the small of her back, embracing her tightly to him. They remained like that for a moment, simply enjoying the feel of holding one another till he pulled back and looked into her eyes, his hand sliding from behind her head to her cheek. "I missed you, Tifa."

"I'm glad you're back, Cloud," She murmured shyly, her gaze dropping to the floor between their feet and resting her head against his chest. They had been going out for nearly a month now, but due to the demands of his job, they were rarely able to spend enough time together to go on dates and such. So their relationship was still very fresh, very new; They had kissed twice. The first time was on impulse and everyone was there to see it and promptly made quite the scene. The second was quickly stolen in the empty hall before he left. So it wasn't a surprise that being so close to him like this left Tifa's heart racing like the moment they had revealed their feelings. She wondered at the beat of Cloud's heart and laid a hand over his heart. She hadn't expected Cloud to greet her in such a way, and it seemed from Cloud, that he hadn't either. It surprised her, and she welcomed it.

Cloud dropped his hand onto her shoulder and gently pushed her away from his body where she hid her flushed face. She looked up at him wondering why he pulled away from her, then lowered her eyes when she found she could not hold his gaze; it seemed they were going to kiss a third time, as his hand urged her head tilt back to access her lips. He called her name so she would look into his eyes and he could see the emotion there before he kissed her. He drew closer, tilting his head to one side as the inches between them disappeared. Her eyes slide shut, her dark lashes resting against her rosy cheek.

Perhaps it was because they were alone or the dangerous way Cloud held her so tightly to him and the look in his blue eyes that made her warm and short of air, her heart beat louder in her ears and that if she didn't feel his lips upon her, she'd never quite catch her breath suspended there on Cloud's lips. In other terms; she'd be very, _very_ frustrated. The only thing that could stop this kiss was a force of nature.

And lo' and behold, one tore through the door step of Seventh Heaven- Yuffie Kisaragi.

"Vinnie, I hate you!" The young ninja wailed as she ran passed them, hands held up covering her face. She sped straight through the bar and up the stairs, and the loud bang of a door being slammed followed a second later.

Cloud and Tifa looked from the stairs - having broken apart the moment Yuffie rushed in- and to the door when they heard the gunman enter. It looked to them like a bad break up, but that was ridiculous. The two weren't dating as far as they knew and it was even harder to imagine Vincent saying yes to anyone not dead and not frozen inside a crystal. So they thought, had Yuffie confessed and been rejected?

Tifa put aside the great frustration she felt as her friend was quite distraught and it seemed selfish of her to dwell on her lack of a kiss from the man who shared her feelings.

Knowing Vincent wasn't going to openly explain the situation, Cloud asked him, "What happened?"

"I made a joke and she lost the control of her bladder." Vincent said as if he was giving he details of a crime scene.

"_IDIDNOTLOSECONTROLOFMYBLADDER_. YOU MADE ME PEE MY PANTS, YOU JERK!" Was the yell from upstairs. And another followed a second later. "AND DON'T TELL THEM, _GAWD_!"

Tifa thought forunatelyMarlene and Denzel were with Barret.

Cloud blinked and looked at Vincent who stood beside him. "I didn't know you were a such a funny guy." On the other side of Cloud, Tifa slumped onto one of the tables, laying her head on crossed arms as her shoulders silently shook.

"Perhaps it was my delivey," Vincent deadpanned in the same quiet tone Cloud ever heard him speak. Cloud stared at him. He couldn't tell if the guy was making a joke then or if he was serious.

And that's when he noticed Tifa defeated on a table, sobbing.


End file.
